SF Chronicle: California momentum grows to legalize cannabis in 2016

University of Colorado students and friends smoke marijuana at a home in Boulder, Sept. 26, 2014. Nationally, marijuana use among young adults has clearly been trending upward, an increase experts say is surely a reflection of relaxed laws in some states .(Matthew Staver/The New York Times)

But with voters in Oregon and Alaska legalizing the use and sale of marijuana — joining Washington and Colorado in inviting retail spreads of cannabis-infused teas and brownies and joints — advocates see fresh momentum behind the slow shift in how the public regards the green stuff and those who enjoy it.

California residents rejected legalization in 2010, with a 54 percent vote against it, but supporters of recreational marijuana are growing more confident about reversing that result in the 2016 election.

“I see a parallel — not a perfect parallel, but a parallel — with marriage equality,” said Ben Tulchin, a San Francisco-based pollster who has watched sympathy for both same-sex unions and marijuana climb. “The first battle you may lose, like in California, but you start a conversation and get the dialogue going. … And you eventually see a very big shift.”

“The bottom line is that people are no longer fooled by the anti-marijuana propaganda,” said Chris Lindsey, legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, which filed paperwork this fall to raise money for California’s legalization measure. Echoing what has been seen as a winning talking point for cannabis proponents in recent years, Lindsey said, “Voters are increasingly savvy to the fact that marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol and really should be treated that way.”